AC3.1

• Aims of police

  Keep peace and maintain order

  Protect life and property

  Prevent, detect and investigate crime

  Bring offenders to justice
• Philosophy of police

  Basic mission is to prevent crime

  The use of physical force is a last resort

  The police's duty is to impartially serve the law

  The public are the police, the police are the public. The police are just the public in uniform, paid to do full time what the citizens must do to uphold the law.

  It is embedded into the police code of ethics.
• Police funding

  2021/22- £15B

  2/3 from central gov, rest from council tax and small amount from charging services, football matches and concerts
• Working practices: reach

  National and local reach

  The Police have 39 regional police forces in England and 4 in Wales.

  There are also specialist organisations within the police that have a more national reach - the national crime agency, British transport police, and border force
• Evaluation of police

  Strength - they are prioritising crimes that are of public concern. Domestic abuse has seen an increase in reporting and recording. A survey from the 2017 annual report of HM Inspector of Police showed that 2/3 of domestic abuse practitioners felt the polices approach had improved in the previous 3 years.
• Police prioritisation - evaluation

  However the same report also showed that there were many shortcomings in the police's performance on domestic abuse. For example the arrest rates for domestic abuse are falling, police are failing to turn on body cameras meaning evidence is not being gathered, police are failing to use bail conditions to protect victims.
• Inefficiency and incompetence

  2 Cases have criticised the police for their inefficiency and incompetence.

  The Macpherson report highlighted issues with the police service, racism, slow work ethic and inefficiency. They were further highlighted in the Steven Lawrence case the police did not start CPR and thought the case was gang related- highlighting racism.
• Puppy Farm Murders- the firearms department failed to sufficiently investigate the background of the murderer. He had his gun handed back to him 7 months before the murders. Even though there were allegations he had threatened to kill the victims sister. They failed to apply the correct standard of proof when deciding whether to give the firearm back.